Long ago, on the border of Wales in the English countryside, Simon Kirke listened to Radio Luxembourg and its steady diet of American music by the likes of Ray Charles, Chuck Berry, James Brown, Aretha Franklin, and Marvin Gaye. “Very exciting music,” he told The Star this week, “compared with the music that was on the BBC stations in England.”
At 18, the London-born drummer and composer, who lives in Montauk, made a deal with his parents: He would have two years to pursue his dream. “I left home at 18,” he said, “and worked various jobs in London while I answered ads for musicians.”
More than five decades later, on Saturday, he was in Los Angeles to attend the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s annual induction ceremony, where one of his storied bands was honored.
Mr. Kirke, who immigrated to the United States in 1997, is a founding member of Bad Company. Formed in 1973, the band is known for its bluesy rock-and-roll sound and hits including “Can’t Get Enough,” “Rock Steady,” “Ready for Love,” “Bad Company,” “Movin’ On,” and “Seagull.” And those songs — all of them — are on one album, the band’s eponymous 1974 debut. Its follow-up, 1975’s “Straight Shooter,” included the hits “Good Lovin’ Gone Bad,” “Feel Like Makin’ Love,” and “Shooting Star.”
Appearing amid the rise of glam rock artists like David Bowie and T. Rex, Bad Company’s ferocious yet melodic and catchy rock-and-roll made them an ideal choice for Led Zeppelin’s fledging label, Swan Song Records, and Zeppelin’s legendary manager, Peter Grant.
On Saturday, Mr. Kirke and the band’s other surviving member, the vocalist Paul Rodgers, addressed those attending the ceremony or watching the live broadcast. Mr. Rodgers, however, did not attend, but rather spoke via a recorded video, having cited a need to prioritize his health.
Mr. Kirke and Mr. Rodgers have the rare distinction of being members of not one but two bands in the pantheon of classic rock-and-roll artists. Along with Bad Company, they were founding members of Free, best known for its 1970 hit, “All Right Now.”
During the ceremony, Mr. Kirke performed Bad Company songs with artists including Bryan Adams, Joe Perry of Aerosmith, Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, and Nancy Wilson of Heart. Bad Company joined the 2025 Hall of Fame inductees Chubby Checker, Joe Cocker, the White Stripes, Cyndi Lauper, OutKast, and Soundgarden. Several other artists were inducted in the musical influence or musical excellence categories.
“They say it’s better to travel than to arrive,” Mr. Kirke told the gathering. “I don’t know. Tonight I’ve arrived with the band, and I’m so grateful.” He acknowledged “one of the greatest rock singers of all time, Mr. Paul Rodgers.”
“It was a wonderful evening,” he told The Star upon his return from Los Angeles. “What really resonated with me was the warmth from my peers — people like Bryan Adams, Joe Perry, Cyndi Lauper. A couple of the guys from OutKast and Soundgarden came over and gave me congratulations.”
Another drummer, Chad Smith of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom Mr. Kirke shared the stage at Guild Hall in East Hampton last summer, was also among the well-wishers. “There seems to be a lot of affection for Bad Company,”
Mr. Kirke said. “I was truly moved, especially giving my acceptance speech.”
Earlier, much earlier, in his travels, a coin toss would determine Mr. Kirke’s path. “One day,” he said, “I saw an ad for a gig across town featuring a band called Black Cat Bones. I loved the name and wanted to go, but it was a very long way by subway across London, so I tossed a coin. It came down heads, so I went.”
The band was very good, he said, “but the guitarist was exceptional, a small guy who had so much passion in his playing.” His name was Paul Kossoff. During a break, Mr. Kirke told him that if the band ever needed another drummer, “I would love the job.” As it happened, “the drummer was leaving, and I auditioned the next day and got the gig.” For the next several months, “I traveled around England with the band, and it was the beginning of a dream.”
Kossoff later told Mr. Kirke that he had met a singer in another Londonbased blues band “and said he was phenomenal.” That singer was Mr. Rodgers. “They wanted to form a band,” Mr. Kirke recalled, “and that ultimately became Free.”
Free lasted around five years, but ultimately succumbed to Kossoff’s drug addiction. “We just couldn’t function anymore with that burden,” Mr. Kirke said. Three years later, Kossoff, just 25 years old, died of a drug-induced heart attack.
Mr. Rodgers formed another band, and while on a tour with Mott the Hoople became friendly with its guitarist, Mick Ralphs, who expressed a desire to leave that group, Mr. Kirke said. “I wanted to start a band,” he said, and Mr. Rodgers “said that he had the same feeling,” as his new project “was not really going anywhere.” With Ralphs and Boz Burrell of King Crimson, the quartet would form Bad Company. “I jumped at the chance,” Mr. Kirke remembered. “I’ve always loved Paul’s singing.”
“It was an all-star lineup,” yet another drummer, Mick Fleetwood, said on Saturday in delivering Bad Company’s induction speech. The band, he said, is often labeled one of the first supergroups, “when really, they were four great musicians who came together for the love of music.”
Burrell died in 2006. Ralphs died in June, weeks after learning of Bad Company’s induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His death “was kind of a relief,” Mr. Kirke told The Star in August, “because he’d had a stroke several years ago, and couldn’t play guitar anymore or talk properly. . . . I miss and I loved him.”
It is unlikely, he said, that he and Mr. Rodgers will perform together again. “This would seem to be the end,” he said this week, “and what an end to an amazing career of Bad Company. . . . It’s a fitting plateau on which to finish.”
He has arrived with Bad Company, but “I am far from finished in my career,” he said. In August, before his performance at Guild Hall, he spoke of composing for “Rock Bottom,” a musical with a theme of addiction that is now in production in Boston. “I make no secret I’m in recovery,” he told The Star in August, speaking candidly of a history of substance abuse. Along with “Rock Bottom,” he said this week, “I will continue to do solo shows, score films and documentaries, and continue songwriting.”
